Norse Care chooses Civica to digitise operational processes

Norfolk’s largest care home provider, Norse Care, has selected Coldharbour Residential Care software from Civica to automate its financial and operational management.

The five-year, £480,000 contract will help Norse Care reduce administration time in manual planning and recording rotas and automate and streamline enquiry and billing processes.

In turn, this will free up employees’ time to focus on the delivery of quality care services and planning across its 34 care homes.

With more than 1,250 employees, and almost 2,000 residents across its care homes, Norse Care will use Civica’s Residential Care solution, covering time and attendance, workforce management, data analytics, billing, finance and cost control, to both unify its health and care practices and ensure the homes continue to operate seamlessly as the business grows.

The solution allows managers to monitor admissions and discharges with ease, fill vacant beds, check occupancy levels, and accurately compare actual hours worked against budgets for a complete overview of organisational activity.

As part of the rollout, Norse Care will introduce the system’s biometric clocking in and out for employees. This will help to ensure time and attendance records are secure and accurate and provide the organisation with costs savings of 1-3%.

The introduction of a Care Professionals Portal will also produce further cost savings through the effective management of care home employees, who can now identify shifts available from their mobile device or a portal to reduce the organisation’s dependence on agency workers.

In light of the EU GDPR legislation, which came into force in May this year, Norse Care will also be implementing Coldharbour GDPR Enterprise Manager. This will allow the care homes to record the consent given from residents and employees.

It develops a secondary database with all of the information personally identifiable for the individual, making it easy to access should a resident or family member ask to see any information or request a deletion.

Simon Bullimore, procurement and contracts manager for Norse Care, said: “We chose Civica to be our strategic partner due to Coldharbour software’s impressive functionality and record of successful integrations with accounts and payroll systems.

“The tender process we followed was complex and structured in a way that the best bidder would come out on top.

“Civica’s expertise in developing solutions designed specifically for the health and care industry meant we knew we’d be implementing a fit-for-purpose solution which would help us bring our systems into the digital era.”

Mike Moreton, sales director for health and care at Civica, added: “The residential care industry as a whole is being challenged with rising costs and workforce pressures.

“We recognised that Norse Care needed a system that would enable it to redefine how it works and improve the use of its resources.

“Through its implementation Norse Care will be able to maximise income, control costs, and improve operational efficiencies to allow it to continue to expand and provide ever-improving support and care for residents in the future.”